The Kings of Summer (2013) poster
2013 · comedy · drama

The Kings of Summer

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts1h 35m2013
ElsewhereIMDb7.185kRT76%Metacritic61TMDB7.01k
  • warm
Movie DNA

Warm, steady, measured comedy / drama, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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Three restless teenagers run away to the woods for the summer, determined to escape their parents and live by their own rules. In a hidden clearing, they build a makeshift house and attempt to create an independent life, testing their friendship, freedom, and the challenges of living off the land.

Our read · The Kings of Summer (2013) reads as a warm, steady, grounded comedy · drama entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of The Kings of Summer

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a sunlit coming-of-age about building freedom in the woods.

ends bittersweetit stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 15attention 3/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightSkip if twee teen rebellion or dad-conflict comedy feels too slight tonight.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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